elizabeth kerr

In Genesis 2:24, God said that when a man and a woman marry, they become one. Some of the OT prophets described God's relationship with the Israelites as a marriage - God was the husband, the Israelites were the wife; then, the Israelites' turning away from God to worship idols was considered to be adultery (Jeremiah 2-3; Ezekiel 16, 23; Malachi 2:13-16); Hosea is a parable about this relationship and the wife's adultery and God's love and forgiveness. Additionally, Paul taught that the church is the wife an Jesus Christ is the husband (Ephesians 5:22-33; 2 Corinthians 11:2). In Revelation 19:1-9, 21:1-10, John wrote about the bride of Christ, the church, and her marriage celebration with The Lamb. So, marriage and sexual faithfulness are word pictures of the believer's relationship with God. So, sexual sin separates the Christian from his Bridegroom, Jesus. The believer who is practicing sexual sin should examine himself to see if he is a true believer. He needs to study the Bible to see what it says about how we are supposed to be transformed into Christlikeness (Romans 8:28-30; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2; and more), and seriously judge his own behavior. All sin, even sexual sin, can be forgiven once the sinner genuinely repents with grief and remorse and confesses it to God, Who will then cleanse and purify him. If the sinner is not willing to repent of that sin and turn to God for forgiveness, cleansing, and transformation, maybe he should examine the genuineness of his faith in Jesus. I think Christians in all times and places, not just the here and now, have been complacent about sexual sin, actually about all kinds of sins; today it is just more public. A study of recorded history and biographies of Christians in the societies where Christians supposedly influenced and/or governed show a consistent, persistent pattern of sexual sin being practiced, alongside all other types of sins, in all socioeconomic classes. I think we just do not take God's opinion of sin too seriously, and we think that since all sin can be forgiven, we can sin - even knowing that what we plan to do is a sin-, "repent", and confess our sin, and we will automatically be forgiven; so, we think we do not need to discipline ourselves to resist temptation and we don't!

We must confront, challenge, and denounce false teachings and false teachers because we love others too much to want them to be deceived and die in their sins without the true Jesus. We Christians must also challenge false teachings because we are too easily deceived ourselves and may come under the influence of these false teachings if we do not openly and explicitly and assertively confront the false teachers and their followers with the truth. The Bible is full of warnings for Christians not to be deceived (Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 2:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:3; James 1:16; and more); so, we must not think that we are "safe." To protect ourselves, we Christians must study the Bible in detail, meditate on its teachings with much prayer, and apply these teachings to our own lives. Most of us do not do so with enough diligence and effort, and so, we make ourselves vulnerable to the false teachings. We are influenced by the false teachers who explicitly say that we need to ignore the Bible and follow the new teachings God is giving through visions and direct mystical encounters [which contradict the Bible's teachings]. We are also influenced by those false teachers who "re-interpret" the passages of Scripture they don't like in ways that also contradict the original meanings. We must also challenge, confront, and denounce the false teachers out of love for nonbelievers who will become "Christians" under these false teachings because they are not truly saved since they put their faith in a different Jesus, not the Jesus of the Bible. When we confront and challenge the false teachings and teachers, we will face great danger because their prince is Satan and he will attack everyone who challenges his rule. He will often make it seem like the attacks are coming from Christians who are defending the faith, and not him. We can expect that 1) we will be lied to and lied about by other Christians 2) we will be accused of being unloving and hateful 3) we will be accused to perverting the faith and falsifying the truth 4) we will be kicked out, banned and shunned, by our local congregation 5) we will be labeled as "heretics" and may face physical and financial attacks from other Christians 6) our own families and many friends will disown us [[A study of Christian church history will show us the rejection and suffering we can expect.]] We must not compromise the truth for balance. If we truly agape-love others, we will stand firm in our battle against false teachings and false teachers no matter what the cost, because if we love others, we will not want them to be deceived into following a different Jesus. So, we just do it all at the same time: fight for the truth of God as revealed in the Bible; love, exhort, edify, rebuke, and correct one another; agape-love nonbelievers and the false teachers and their followers and share the true gospel of Jesus Christ with them even when they reject and mistreat us; and disciple and teach any new believers in the truth of God and in Bible study with patience, kindness, and gentleness. As I observe the various congregations', denominations', and individual teachers' public presentations of their current teachings, I am both glad and sad: glad because some are contending for the true faith and standing firm when attacked, and SAD because way too many are following false teachings. It seems that adherence to the truth of God is declining and acceptance of false teachings is increasing.

Scripture being inspired by God helps me draw closer to God because I can trust it as the truth of God. Therefore, I can trust that the revelations of God's character in the Scriptures are true. And therefore, I can trust the God revealed therein and put my hope in Jesus. By studying the whole Bible, memorizing passages, and meditating on what I learn from my studying, I can know God better and more intimately. Our relationship will grow even closer and deeper as I obey His commands that I learn as I study. I think the Holy Spirit is so important, so necessary in helping me understand the Bible because I am finite, limited, and ignorant, and so, many passages are incomprehensible to me, while the Holy Spirit is infinite and knows the mind of God. Also, the Holy Spirit lives in me and knows what I understand, what I don't understand correctly, and exactly what is blocking my understanding, and so, He is able and powerful to overcome that barrier for me. In addition, He knows what I need to learn first before I will understand this passage, and how slowly my learning must proceed in order for me to clearly and correctly grasp God's teaching in this passage.

The image of the ship being moved by the wind helped me understand how God speaks through the prophet in that - -the ship and the prophet both are just vessels being used to move something (cargo/a message) from one place to another place - -they are each transporting someone else's cargo, not their own - -they can only do their work if the wind/the Holy Spirit provides the ability/wisdom/knowledge and power needed - -the wind/the Holy Spirit determines the direction of travel and the port/the people to whom the cargo will be carried. The wind/the Holy Spirit is so powerful that it/He can overrule the rudder and send the ship to somewhere other than the sailors' planned destination

I never think of agape-love as being easier than phileo-love, brotherly kindness/love. I think it is harder but always possible because it is an act of the will and no emotions are involved. Phileo-love, whether for a biological brother, a friend, or a Christian brother, is an emotional love, a feeling of affection, liking, and enjoying-the-company-of. We feel phileo-love for someone with whom we share mutual intrests and with whom we interact closely and regularly doing what we both enjoy doing. We do not feel phileo-love for every biological brother or every Christian brother, and definitely not for one we do not see frequently and do enjoyable things with. Phileo-love is an emotional love and as such, it cannot be manufactured or forced from us just because we ought to. Agape-love, being non-emotional and rather an act of the will, is the love that enables us to do good for all others - - near or far, known or unknown, individuals or groups, liked or disliked - - not just those who love us, but also those who just don't like us, those who hate us, those who treat us evilly, those who persecute us, and also for those we don't know, total strangers; the love we havae for them because we trust and obey Jesus. Agape-love is the love God had for us while we were still His enemies, rejecting Him and persecuting His people, the love that made Jesus come to suffer and die to save us from sin, and the love God has for us now that we believe in Jesus and obey Him even though we still sin some. We must not stop meeting with other Christians to worship God and study the Bible together just because another Christian [or Christians] offended us. This is when we must most openly and most kindly and most persistently demonstrate agape-love for those who offended us. [it is impossible to feel phileo-love for them during this time because by their offense, they destroyed any phileo-love we had for them, but it is still possible for us to demonstrate agape-love for even the worst offender ... by the decision of our will to obey God.] If we stop meeting with other Christians just because some Christian(s) offended us, we will not be able to encourage, edify, or exhort one another to persevere faithful to Jesus through the end or to help each grow mature spiritually.

The faith of each believer is equal in value, in honor, and in preciousness to God, and is of the same kind as the faith of the apostles. Every believer has just as much faith as God chooses to give him, and it is always exactly the right "amount", never too little and never too much, to deal with everything that comes our way while we depend on Jesus - - - it's enough faith to -persevere faithfully through all crises and all good times, -endure all suffering and persecution still faithful to Jesus, and -do all the works God has prepared for us to do. The apostles' faith is equal to my faith in value and honor and type, but God may have chosen to give them more faith than he gives me because His plans required more suffering, more persecution, and more work from them than from me. Similarly, there are Christians living today who have "more" faith than I do because they are experiencing or will experience more suffering and persecution because of Jesus than me. But for each believer, the faith he has is exactly as much as he needs to do as God wills.

We must be so committed to Jesus that we are willing to cling to Him and obey Him no matter what form Satan's attacks take, and they may well be deadly to our bodies. But -Jesus suffered through the normal difficulties of human life here on earth, and then He was tortured and crucified because He publicly proclaimed that He is God (Matthew 27:11-56; Mark 14:53-15:41; Luke 22:63-23:49; John 18:19-19:57; Acts 2:22-23) -Many Christians throughout history have been persecuted through harassment, ridicule and mocking, and even imprisonment, torture, and execution because they refused to deny Jesus and give their allegiance and their obedience to the earthly government -In the Bible, we are repeatedly warned that Christians who publicly acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and obey Him rather than the government will be persecuted and experience suffering (Matthew 5:10-12; John 15:18-20; 1 Thessalonians 3:4; 2 Timothy 3:12; and more) While Peter and Paul taught us how to resist Satan's temptations in somewhat different ways, their goal was the same: that Christians under attack stand firm in their faith in Jesus and remain faithful and obedient to Jesus through the end to the glory of God.

Every Christian is supposed to be humble in attitude, in word, and in actions before God and other people just like Jesus was. The church leaders are therefore supposed to be humble because they are Christians, not because they are leaders. However, as leaders, they will be more in the public eye and others will notice their humility or lack of it more than that of the rest of us. We must observe and test the words and actions of a candidate for leadership in a multitude of situations (and especially situations in which they are considered leaders in and out of the church), over a long continuous time, looking for a consistent and persisting pattern of humility in attitude, word, and behavior. If we don't, we may (not for sure will) end up with a leader who thinks he is superior to the rest of us, does not submit to God as his Sovereign Lord and, therefore, treats others in a domineering, exploitative, and abusive way. Such a leader will damage the congregation and maybe destroy it. He will also damage and/or destroy other Christians' (especially new Christians') relationships with Jesus, with other Christians, and with other congregations. We need to remember that pride, the opposite of humility, is a basic human evil hidden deep in our souls. Satan knows it is there and is always attacking us to try to revive it and return it to its controlling position in our lives. So, we cannot assume or guarantee that any person who is humble today will not sin tomorrow and exalt himself, becoming openly proud, arrogant, and haughty. We need to pray always that God will help us overcome the temptations to this sin of pride.

Our best hope for keeping an elder or a pastor from becoming a power-hungry, domineering "overlord" of the congregation is 1) to pray much for wisdom from God in choosing each elder and pastor 2) to pray for each candidate for office: for his relationship with Jesus, his spiritual growth and maturity, his increasing knowledge of Scripture, his increasing agape-love for God and for other people, his humility and humbling before God 3) to examine each candidate's character, life, past history looking carefully at the qualifications for an elder/deacon in 1 Timothy 3: his relationships in his family, his relationships with other believers in and out of this congregation, his relationships with his superiors and his subordinates on the job, his knowledge of God, his knowledge of Scripture, his beliefs, his secular philosophical beliefs 4) to pray for God to make an inappropriate candidate remove himself from consideration for office 5) to pray for God to make obvious any evidence that a particular candidate should be rejected ****Our search for and choosing of an elder or a pastor must be done slowly, patiently, carefully, and without prejudice, but with a turning-over-every-rock-to-see-what-if-any-bugs-crawl-out-from-underneath attitude. ^^We must be excessively cautious because we are too easily deceived and because too many people are trying to deceive us just as we are trying to deceive them. There should be some limits to an elder's or a pastor's authority. A lot of prayer for wisdom from God and Bible study on the particular limitations being considered are needed before any specific limitation is adopted by the congregaton by a HUGE majority. A near-even result means the congregation is seriously divided on this issue and a lot more prayer, Bible study, and "listening to the other side and really thinking about what they are saying" is needed before any final decision is made. But limits are needed because pastors and elders are just as messed up and sinful as the rest of us, and their power grabs can destroy the congregation. It is highly unlikely that the power-hungry leader will leave the congregation before he has done severe damage to those who remain; sometimes it is the leader who leaves first but just as often it is the regular members who flee. A person cannot be offered the position of elder or pastor on a probationary basis; so, our "testing" has to be done by seriously and conscienciously vetting the candidate before he is offered the position. But even the best vetting job will not guarantee that the person offered the position is the right one. This is because all of us tend to hide our flaws, weaknesses, and sins and to exaggerate the good for the sake of our reputation, especially when we are hoping for a leadership position.

We must be willing to die for Christ when we are persecuted, or we will deny Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit in order to avoid any kind of suffering, not just execution, when we are threatened. To prepare ourselves now for any kind of persecution we may experience in the future, every day we must entrust ourselves to God and ask for His power to enable us to endure terrifying, excruciating suffering and death for believing in Jesus and to enable us to remain faithful to Jesus through the end, through the death of this physical body. We also need to ask Him to help us remain faithful to Jesus and obedient to Him through prosperous times so that - -we will honor and glorify Him when all is going well in our earthly lives, - -our faith will be true and strong, - -our relationship with Jesus will be intimated and committed, and - -we will have the faith in Jesus and the relationship with Him that we will need in order to endure persecution. We should not think that we will suddenly change and become faithful believers in Jesus when persecution comes, and so, we may now in the good times, act however we wish, even doing what we know is sinful and evil. I read a warning from the Persecuted Church, from long-persecuted pastors in China and Romania, about the good times: They report that when the Christians experienced severe persecution, they clung to Christ and remained faithful to Him, but when the times changed and they became prosperous [in Romania when the Communists were overthrown, in China when the younger people migrated to the cities where life was "easier" than in the small villages and the countryside] , they were enticed by the lack of severe suffering and let go of Christ, still thinking they were Christians but no longer focussing on Him and no longer willing to sufffer and die for Him. It seems that persecution benefits our faith in Christ.

If we are never persecuted for believing in Jesus, it means that 1) we don't associate enough with nonbelievers, or 2) we don't love nonbelievers as Jesus loves us and commands us to love them, or 3) we don't witness to nonbelievers about Jesus or God's coming kingdom, or 4) we don't reflect Jesus to nonbelievers in our attitudes, our words, or our actions, or 5) we don't love other Chrisitians either, for Jesus said that nonbelievers would know that we are Christians by the love we showed one another. Nonbelievers won't persecute us for our faith in Jesus if they don't observe Jesus in our attitudes, our words, and our actions! Persecution should make us feel joyful and blessed in that - it means that we are reflecting Jesus in a way that called the attention of nonbelievers to us and to Him - it verifies our faith in Jesus since Jesus said repeatedly that we who believe in Him will be hated and persecuted by nonbelievers.

Realizing, acknowledging, and meditating about my participating and sharing in Christ's suffering, in the thought that my suffering can reflect Jesus living in me and that God can use that reflection of Jesus to point and draw nonbelievers to faith in Jesus, is incredible. It is awesome and marvelous that God can use my suffering not only to make me more like Christ (Romans 8:28-39) but also to do good in someone else's heart and mind. NOTE: re p 2 referring to "joy in suffering" as a paradox: I used to think of my being chosen by God for salvation and my freely choosing to believe in Jesus as my Savior, both of which can be found in the Bible, as a paradox. But now I think of it as a mystery of God's ways that my finite, limited mind is incapable of comprehending. I look at joy in suffering for Christ the same way. [This is not my own idea; I got it from Chosen But Free by Norman Geisler, 3rd ed., (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers; 1990, 2001, 2010), pages 130-159. If it were a paradox, one "truth" would have to be false, and then, since the Bible states that both are truth, the Bible would contain falsehoods, AND THAT CANNOT BE. Everything God says is true in the Bible is true. So, there are no paradoxes in the Bible, and what I think seem to be paradoxes are actually mysteries that I cannot grasp with my puny, little mind, but God knows how they work together.]

The dangers of trying to avoid persecution and suffering for Christ include our compromising/changing our beliefs in order to avoid suffering, our disobeying God, our leaving God to worship a false god as a result of our changing our beliefs, and our denying that Jesus is the Son of God as Peter did before the rooster crowed. Our compromising our faith to avoid suffering shows that our faith in Jesus is/was not genuine, or immature, or based on faulty doctrine, or based on affection and (mystical/sensual) experiences instead of on agape-love and the truth of God revealed in the Bible. So far, I have not chosen to disobey God in order to avoid persecution; since I live in the US, I have not yet been persecuted for my faith in Jesus or for obeying God against the demands of my community. I pray and hope that I will stand firm and faithful to Jesus to the end and that I will obey God if and when I am threatened with persecution and suffering if I don't do something God has commanded me not to do. That time may come sooner than we think, and indeed, some in the US have already lost their jobs, been sued, and had their businesses boycotted for opposing abortion and same-sex marriage. I personally am not aware that any Christian I know has compromised his beliefs or denied Christ in order to avoid persecution. However, I have heard that several denominations have changed their stance from homosexual behavior is a sin to it is acceptable and approved behavior, because 1) the "gay lobby" within their denomination has actively and agressively pushed for the change while those who oppose it have not been active or assertive, 2) they have re-interpreted the Bible to not teach that homosexual behavior is a sin or to teach that it is only a sin when performed by same-sex temple-prostitute/worshipper couples; 3) they are afraid the younger people will leave the church, and so, as the number of members drops, the financial situation of the congregations will deteriorate to the point that they will lose their property and cease to exist. Better the congregations should remain faithful to the truth of God and die numerically and financially than that we should change our beliefs to a lie and continue to exist as a functioning institution in this world!!

1. I am not sure that Christians who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus and their obedience to God find it difficult to witness for Christ to their persecutors. Stories from the persecuted church tell about Christians who are harassed, arrested, tortured, and imprisoned but still speak as witnesses for Christ and refuse to deny Him in order to escape the pain and be set free. It is us Christians in the so-called Christianized world who have a tough time witnessing for Christ to our nonbelieving "friends" and relatives and to those who have just recently begun to "persecute" us verbally and with threats to our finances (employees losing their jobs, businessowners being sued for refusing to do as potential customers want). Until fairly recently, Christianity was respected and the norm. Judeo-Christian values were the foundation of our society's ethics and expectations. But now that it is changing as those pseudo-Christians no longer find it necessary to pretend to be Christians in order to gain social status and political or financial power. They are testing us and we are not prepared to stand firm faithful to Jesus. Instead of witnessing to them for Christ, we remain silent. 2. It is easy, too easy, to do the wrong thing when we are suffering at the hands of someone else because - -we don't really trust God to do what is best for us with the situation - -we have the wrong idea that since we are Christians, only good things should happen to us - -our emotions of fear, hurt, anger, and a desire for revenge take over, and we shut down out minds and do not think things through prayerfully, carefully, and calmly. 3. I thought that my problem was that I am not ready to tell others about Jesus unless they ask me questions for fear that they will reject me, but I now realize that behind that is a failure to focus completely on Jesus and not at all on myself. When my focus is totally on Him, I will not care what happens to me.

After a couple years, I recently left a large church with some problems. Number one: they value harmony/"peace"/no conflict so that everyone, no matter what they believe, will feel comfortable and loved, more than the truth of God revealed in the Bible. All they ask any potential members about or tell anyone about the church is their belief in Jesus as their Savior. But we need both love and the truth of God, and our harmony comes from that foundation or we are deceived and it will not last. Within some small groups of people in this church, there is affection, sympathy, love, support, and even a willingness to serve ... for a time. But it doesn't extend to the majority outside the group. Maybe this is true of humans and this church is just too big.

In the US, we have suffered from trials and hardships, but so far, we have not been persecuted like Christians in other parts of the world. However, things are changing and Christians are beginning to be persecuted not with physical torture and death but with insults, ridicule, lost jobs, and lawsuits for refusing to do something society and the law approve of but God does not. Now is the time to learn to retaliate against our enemies Jesus' way: agape-love them, do good to them, bless them, and love them some more as we pray for them (Luke 6:27-31; Matthew 5:43-45).

We Christians need to always work as if for the Lord (Colossians 3:23), no matter how our employers and fellow employees act. And working for the Lord means not turning our backs on others who are in need or mistreated on the job, even when it will cost us dearly -- like we get a poor performance evaluation, we make our employer, supervisor, or fellow employees angry because we make them look bad by exposing the injustice being done, we are falsely accused of some inappropriate acts and so get demoted or fired. So, to support the one treated unjustly, we must speak against what is being done or not being done and still do our work to the best of our ability, not cutting back on our effort or time on task in order to seek justice for our fellow employee(s). Working for the Lord also means not doing those immoral or illegal things the employer or supervisor or fellow employee may order us to do as a part of our job assignment because such actions will cause us to disobey God. We must also "complain" about such orders and accept the cost. But we must not whine about mistreatment against ourselves; we must not even file a complaint about it without a lot of prayer and thought trying to figure out how God wants us to handle the situation. It is vital for God's glory and our witness as His children on earth that our response be marked by agape-love, mercy, compassion, kindness, gentleness, and righteousness, justice, and the truth.

It is not easy to look back at my own past at the times when I did not obey the civil authorities, and it is even more difficult to look back on the rebellions by my ancestors, whether biological or political. Since my country is the USA, I will only refer to examples from its history. First, I need to consider some questions about the people involved: Were they truly Christians who were committed to obeying the God of the Bible? What were they really protesting in their rebellion? Was the government acting against the commands of God or requiring that the citizens/residents do so? Those are not easy questions to find the answers to back in time; so, all our judgments must be tentative, not absolute. Other participants in this study mentioned: 1) the American Revolution. Supposedly the reasons the colonists rebelled were a) they did not want to pay the taxes the English government imposed to pay for the defense of the colonies during the French and Indian War and they just wanted to be independent. [Would God approve of those reasons for rebelling?] Many or maybe most of the colonists actively rebelling against the king's government considered themselves to be Christians, but not all of them. {Did they obey God's commands in other aspects of their lives? No, some of the rebelling colonists attacked and imprisoned their neighbors who did not actively support either side in a pre-emptive move. Can we judge those who were not Christians by God's standards?} 2) the civil rights movement. Those who disobeyed the government in this rebellion were disobeying governing authorities that oppressesd, abused and exploited black people just because they were black, by custom and by local law. A non-black person who wanted to treat a black person in a godly manner was too often forbidden to do so by law. Most of the rebels did not physically attack or attempt to kill other people but those whose behaviors they were protesting did. And again most of the people on both sides thought they were Christians. 3) the Vietnam War protests. Some protested the war by refusing to be drafted and accepted their punishment (imprisonment). Others reacted violently and caused many others to suffer greatly. 4) the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. I supported the first Iraq War to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait after they invaded it, but I strongly opposed the second Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan. I also have observed that there has been very little protest against these wars. Could it be because most people's lives are totally unaffected by the wars -- they do not have to fear being sent to fight since we have an all-volunteer military, they continue to work and live as they wish, even the economic problems we have have not been blamed on the wars? Only some military members and their families are negatively affected by the wars; the rest of us can pretty much ignore them. More importantly than looking back at the past, we Christians need to look at ourselves and at the future. We cannot change the past, but we decide what we will do in the future. So, we must study the Bible now; then, when there is a situation in the future where we think the government is doing something ungodly, we can judge it by God's standards, and not our own preferences, and then decide if God would want us to obey or disobey the government in this particular situation - - and if we decide He would want us to disobey the government, what form that disobedience should take. I want to obey the civil authorities because God has so commanded in the Bible. I pray and hope that when I am called to disobey them because they are ordering me to do something that God has commanded me not to do in the Bible, I will stand firm on God's side and not deny Him and give in to the civil authorities to avoid the suffering. Above all, I want to obey God because that pleases Him and shows that He is my Lord, not me.

We are called by God to do good to other people even when nobody notices. But others will not praise God for the good we do if we don't tell them that it is God who motivates us to do good. So, we need to do both: do good deeds and speak of Jesus and His loving sacrifice on the cross to save us. It would be wonderful if those who oppose Christ in us could find no corruption or sin to charge us with except for serving and obeying Christ, as was the case with Daniel (6:3-5), when they persecute us. If we blend-in with the world, they won't need to persecute us because we will not be glorifying God, and they will either think that we are not genuine Christians or our God is impotent.

There are many within the church who do not believe Jesus is coming soon. They believe that all the prophecies of the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Millennial Kingdom, and the Battle of Armageddon are "spiritual" and not literal. They believe that Christ will come again eventually - - - after we Christians have "Christianized" the world not by evangelism [telling others about Jesus and the salvation He purchased for us] but by eradicating poverty and injustice and other social justice issues. Without their focus being on Jesus and His coming again, they live like the nonbelievers: they do not study the Bible or try to live by Its teaching, instead they focus on the things of this world and this age. They don't know what they are missing. I have met a few who seem to focus on Christ and do some compassionate-care/social-justice work, but they still believe we have to transform the world ourselves. Maybe we people are not able to devote ourselves to two goals (focussing on Christ and eradicating social problems) any more than we can serve and love two masters (God and Money) <Luke 16:13.... Jesus said Mary of Bethany, who chose to sit at His feet and listen to His teaching, chose the right thing and He chided her sister Martha for being so busy serving that she didn't make time to listen to Him. I think that when we expect Jesus to come again at any moment, we focus on Him and discipline ourselves to learn His ways from the Bible and to obey Him, and when we do not expect Jesus to come soon, we turn our hearts, our minds, and our goals from God to the world and therefore, in danger of damaging our relationship with Jesus.

My first thought was that a Christian who identifies more with his present earthly homeland than with his heavenly homeland was a Christian who was not walking close to God and he really needed to spend more time and give more attention to what God teaches us in the Bible, to prayer, and to praising God for Who He is and what He has done. But recently, I have learned more about the emergent/emerging church and other groups who claim that God commands them/all of us Christians to transform this world by our actions and make it God's kingdom on earth before Christ will come again. These people believe that we must identify more with our earthly homeland and put all our effort into improving it, and that those who identify more with their heavenly homeland and put their effort into evangelization and discipling new believers in what the Bible teaches are disobeying God. I have from time to time given my heart to my earthly homeland instead of to God. It is idol worship and damages or destroys my relationship with the true God. Just as God in the Old Testament disciplined and severely punished the Israelites for worshipping idols, He disciplined me. But in the same way also, when I repented and turned back to Him and Him alone, He forgave me and reconciled with me.

I think the reasons churches do not discipline their members are many, including: 1) they think Jesus commanded us not to judge, and discipline requires judging that someone is acting inappropriately; 2) the person who needs to be disciplined is a family member or close friend of the pastor or an elder, or even the pastor or the elder himself; 3) the person who needs to be disciplined is a major financial contributor without whose contribution the church cannot pay its bills, and so, the pastor and elders are afraid of offending him with the result that he leaves the church; 4) disciplining one member will require disciplining many others, or they will be guilty of showing favoritism to some and discriminating against others; 5) they are afraid of a lawsuit that they will lose if they discipline a member who does not accept their judgment [This has happened at a church in the US where the leadership told the congregation not to associate with a particular member because of her sin and removed her from membership. She sued and won a large sum.] Disciplining a church member is risky in today's world if the person being disciplined does not accept the discipline. That person will continue to cause trouble for the church. However, if someone is acting sinfully in a way that is hurting the congregation and the church does not act to discipline that person, the harm to the church will grow and the congregation may split with a lot of hateful feelings and actions. So, I think that those who observe the misbehavior that is harming the church must pray and act to confront the sinner with mercy and forgiveness for a repentant sinner as their motive. When someone in the congregation I attend is disciplined, I need to think about what I have observed in that person's behavior, what the accusation is, what the "punishment" is, and how the discipline is applied. I personally know of 3 cases of church discipline being applied to congregants within the last year: ---two cases involved couples divorcing but not for adultery; one spouse was excommunicated. I wondered why those two couples were disciplined but not the other couples who were recently divorced. ---one case involved a person asking whether the new age activities (visualizing, mantras, melding with the spirit, labyrinths) being introduced into the women's ministry were acceptable; she was told to stop asking questions. So, think and pray and pray some more about everything that happens in the church!

I am concerned that if we apply this rule, some people will starve. I do not think that we Christians have the knowledge and skill required to accurately judge who is capable of working the jobs that are available today. Employers sometimes have "qualifications" for particular positions in their companies that have nothing to do with the employee's ability to do the job, and we cannot force an employer to hire a specific applicant just because we think he is qualified. Some employers reject applicants who are under- or overeducated, of low intellectual ability, physically disabled, suffering from a chronic illness like diabetes, obese, over 50 years old, look "old", currently unemployed, ex-cons, military veterans, cancer survivors, smokers, mothers with young children at home -- even when they have the training needed and seem capable of doing the job well. Only if I have the means to create a new business and hire a particular applicant for a job, can I guarantee that he will be offered a job if he goes out and applies for one with my company. How many of us can do this? Still, I think we should encourage unemployed adults to actively and diligently apply for all job openings they find out about. Maybe they will be employed. And if they do not find a job, we should encourage them for trying and to keep on trying, not put them down because they were not hired. Working to earn money to support yourself and your family is a worthwhile goal.

I think that people who will believe the Antichrist's deceptions 1--will have believed many lies before his time; maybe because they wanted to believe the lies that made life so "beautiful, exciting, ..." or maybe because they trusted the person who told the lies. 2-- will be blinded by Satan, their prince 3-- will have rejected God and defied Him, doing so many wicked things that He will have given them over to their own perversions, the ones they themselves chose! We must know God's truth so that we can test ALL the teachings we are exposed to in order to see if each one conforms to Scripture or not. And we must test everything we hear and read because much of it is false teaching aimed at deceiving us. So, we must read God's Word, the Bible, a lot. As we read, we must observe exactly what it says, thinking about it, and looking for the connections between different passages of Scripture and the connections to our lives in this world. We need to know how God sees the people and situations that we encounter and how he responds to each so that we can imitate Him. ...and we need to know ahead of time, not afterwards. I do not know if true Christians can be deceived into "believing and following" the Antichrist when we experience torture and/or watch our loved ones being tortured; true stories from the persecuted church over the centuries show some who have remained faithful and some others who have turned away from Jesus but later repented and returned to Him, after being tortured. I am not so arrogant or so self-assured that I will say that I will remain faithful always no matter what although I hope and pray that I will. But I think that true Christians can be deceived into believing false teachings that do not go so far as denying Christ. And I have noticed that some well-known Christian leaders, pastors, and writers have changed their beliefs and teachings over time., and even some denominations are fighting over certain issues and changing their official doctrines. So, I think it is necessary to test even the teaching of Christians who are highly esteemed in the church as faithful and wise and to pay attention to what is happening in our local churches and our denominations.

I think some churches/Christians shy away from prophecy today because too many who make a public proclamation of what they claim is a prophecy from God do not follow the guidelines given in Scripture for prophesying today. They insist that their proclamation is the word of God equal to or superceding the Bible, and they refuse to accept any testing to see if it conforms to Scripture. As a consequence, many of us look at prophecies given today with unease, skepticism, and distrust. That is too bad because then we may miss a needed message from God.